On virtually every demographic form you compete in the United States, you are asked to indicate your racial and/or ethnic affiliation. This talk will provide a brief history of racial and ethnic data collection at the federal level and the implications for other organizations and institutions in the U.S. In particular, I will examine how the longstanding racial classification of Arab/MENA Americans has affected this community and the study of racial disparities in multiple domains.

About the speaker: Dr. Germine Awad is a University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor and Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Germine Awad is one of the co-founders and past President of the American, Arab, Middle Eastern and North African Psychological Association (AMENA-Psy). She is also a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and served on the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations for the U.S. Census Bureau. She has published articles and book chapters in the areas of prejudice and discrimination, identity, racial and ethnic identification, and multicultural research methodology and is the co-editor of The Handbook of Arab American Psychology.